All Eyes on Me

Little Monsters
stop motion shorts by Phoebe Roberts

This episode: Deuce tries a pickup line on Cleo. It works, but not quite as he planned.

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Episode 1 - "Eat Your Heart Out"

Watch on YouTube

Written, shot, and edited by Phoebe Roberts

With the voice talents of
Jackie Freyman as Lagoona Blue
Naomi Ibasitas as Cleo DeNile
Andrew Prentice as Deuce Gorgon

With technical assistance from Bernie Gabin

From @ BreakingLightProductions on Youtube

Next episode: 2. Made Wrong

Yesterday I got a solicitation today from Webnovel, an Chinese-based publisher of stories online. I knew them a bit by reputation, which wasn’t great. I think I remember seeing Facebook ads of theirs that contained entire first chapters of books that were not just incompetently written, but not even really copyedited, usually some overwrought heterosexual romance featuring a distasteful level of coercion by the male lead.

A little more research confirmed what I suspected, which is that business model is fairly predatory. While they do pay in money, they demand a high percentage of any revenue made through reads, plus “operating fees,” the cost of which they obscure. I’ve even heard they sometimes offer folks exclusive contracts, which means they not only own the work you’re publishing with them, but they also demand the rights to anything the author creates in the future. So… not a great deal, even if you do make a little money off of it.

The thing that particularly amused me is that they were interested in Texts from Avengers Tower. It is far and away the most quantifiably popular thing I’ve ever made, with about 40,000 unique reads on Archive of Our Own. But it’s a fan fic, so I don’t know how they think they can get away with publishing it for monetary profit. I know these days a lot of fan fics have “the serial numbers filed off”— changing the identifying details of the referenced property in order to publish it as something original. But Texts from Avengers Tower would make ZERO SENSE out of context, so I don’t know why anybody would want to read it except for the wit of how it’s iterating on the MCU.

Interestingly they say they found it on Fanfiction.Net, which does not have public stats, so I’m not sure what drew them to it. And the solicitation email was sent to the Mrs. Hawking email address, which is not obviously connected to my Fanfiction.Net profile, so I wonder what digging they did to use that as the contact.

I’m thinking of writing back just to see what they have in mind. I’m curious what they are imagining, given all that. I obviously don’t intend to sign away everything I ever wrote to a Chinese internet pulp pusher, but I’d be amused to hear what they are planning on offering.

A shame this is the most anyone’s ever been interested in my work. ;-)

“Texts from Avengers Tower”
By Phoebe Roberts
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Summary: “There are a lot of great things about being on a close-knit team like the Avengers. The group text chains aren’t one of them.

A collection of funny conversations in text messages between the cast of the MCU.”

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( Previous Texts )

Los Angeles, 2025. Scott Lang to Bruce Banner.

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( Message 109 - “Grovel” )

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Next text: 110. Pact II

“Texts from Avengers Tower”
By Phoebe Roberts
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Summary: “There are a lot of great things about being on a close-knit team like the Avengers. The group text chains aren’t one of them.

The short video versions of the collection of funny conversations in text messages between the cast of the MCU.”

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( Previous Video Texts )

This text: New York, 2024. Sam Wilson to Bucky Barnes.

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13. - “Mentionitis”

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Watch on YouTube

Find on: Youtube - Tiktok

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Next text: 14. Discretion

“Texts from Avengers Tower”
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~

Summary: “There are a lot of great things about being on a close-knit team like the Avengers. The group text chains aren’t one of them.

A collection of funny conversations in text messages between the cast of the MCU.”

~~~

( Previous Texts )

Washington, DC, 2025. Nebula to Bucky Barnes.

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( Message 108 - “Gift” )

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Next text: 109. Grovel

“Texts from Avengers Tower”
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~

Summary: “There are a lot of great things about being on a close-knit team like the Avengers. The group text chains aren’t one of them.

A collection of funny conversations in text messages between the cast of the MCU.”

~~~

( Previous Texts )

Talokan, 2024. Namora to Namor.

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( Message 106 - “Scientist” )

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Next text: 107. Yak's Milk

“Texts from Avengers Tower”
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~

Summary: “There are a lot of great things about being on a close-knit team like the Avengers. The group text chains aren’t one of them.

The short video versions of the collection of funny conversations in text messages between the cast of the MCU.”

~~~

( Previous Video Texts )

This text: Tønsberg, 2021. Korg to Thor.

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12. - “Plea”

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Watch on YouTube

Find on: Youtube - Tiktok

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Next video text: 13. Mentionitis

More fan fic from my ”Forever Captain” series. This follows directly after several other scenes from the challenge this year, #6 - History Book and #15 - Found Out. I think it moves a little too fast, eliding over important questions and moments this conversation would have before it gets to the point it arrives at. But I was trying to give it some kind of arc without, as is often the case for scenes drafted for 31P31D, knowing much about the structure of the theoretical larger piece.

I probably could get a half-decent installment of the fan fic, however, if I develop this idea and work it into prose.



( Day #26 - Long Story )

“Texts from Avengers Tower”
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~

Summary: “There are a lot of great things about being on a close-knit team like the Avengers. The group text chains aren’t one of them.

A collection of funny conversations in text messages between the cast of the MCU.”

~~~

( Previous Texts )

Hell’s Kitchen, 2016. Foggy Nelson to Matt Murdock.

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( Message 103 - “Sonar” )

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Another piece from the eventual timeline of my ”Forever Captain” Captain America fanfic. It builds upon the scene from Day #6 - History Book.

As I said, I’m not sure I’d actually like to go with this way of Steve’s kids finding out who he is, but it’s good enough to experiment with for now. The more important thing to work out is how they react. I want his daughter and son to respond differently, and hopefully both in interesting ways. Another complicating factor is that I imagine his daughter, Elizabeth, has inherited some of his super soldier qualities, while his son, Jamie, is more a normal human. That is yet to be figured out for them at this point, but I want to lay foundations that make sense.



( Day #15 - Found Out )